Organizational Support and Networking for Human Service Knowledge Brokers

Background and Purpose: The knowledge broker (KB) role was developed to address the research-to-practice gap by supporting agency-based research retrieval, dissemination, and utilization. Research on the role has determined that KBs may serve essential functions by: gathering, synthesizing, and translating research evidence for practitioners; linking agency staff to external researchers; and developing an overall culture of empiricism and experimentation (Lomas, 2007; Traynor et al., 2014). Because the extant literature on the KB role has focused primarily on health care organizations, the current study sought to describe KBs within human service organizations (HSOs). Specifically, the study sought to identify the social network and organizational factors supporting KB efforts to promote evidence-informed practice (EIP) in HSOs. 

Methods: Quantitative data were drawn from a survey of KBs in nonprofit Canadian child welfare agencies and public sector United Kingdom social service local authorities. During fall 2014, 137 of 291 KBs (corresponding with a response rate of 47%) completed an online survey exploring the KB role, their organizational context, and their efforts to promote EIP among agency staff. Two measures were used as dependent variables: (a) an 8-item ordinal scale of the intensity of KB efforts to promote EIP (sample items included “strategize and plan for EIP implementation”, “present information about EIP at staff meetings”; alpha=0.84); and (b) a count of the number of times in the prior month that agency staff requested EIP assistance from the KB. Two key predictors were hypothesized to be positively associated with these outcomes: (c) an 8-item ordinal scale of respondents’ degree of communication with other KBs around EIP-promoting strategies (alpha=0.96); and (d) an 8-item ordinal scale concerning the perceived time, resources, supports, and training available for KBs to perform their role effectively (alpha=0.87). Multivariate ordinal logistic regressions (for the first dependent variable) and negative binomial regressions (for the second dependent variable) were conducted, controlling for respondents’ experience in the KB role and time dedicated to the KB role among other factors.

Results: On average, KBs dedicated 1.4 hours per week to their role; they noted that they had shared an average of 4 articles, reports, or other EIP materials with staff in the past month. Concerning the two dependent variables, KBs noted that they were promoting EIP “a little” (2.17 on a 5-point scale); and noted that agency colleagues reached out to them for EIP assistance an average of 2.2 times in the past month. Multivariate analyses found that the degree of communication with other KBs and perceived availability of KB supports were positively associated with each outcome.

Conclusion: While essential for organizational efforts to infuse EIP into programs and staff activities, the KB role appears to be limited by the availability of staff time and organizational resources, suggesting the need for future research to focus on the nature of organizational supports and the potentials inter-organizational KB collaboration.